THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nine MLAs of the CPM, including state secretary MV Govindan and Speaker A N Shamseer, will not be in the fray this time.
Even as the party is in the process of finalising its candidates for the assembly elections, it has now been confirmed that 52 CPM legislators, along with most of the Left independent MLAs, will contest again, while nine have been dropped. All CPM ministers, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, will be in the fray.
Besides Govindan (Thaliparamba) and Shamseer (Thalassery), the other seven MLAs who have been dropped include former minister M M Mani (Udumbanchola), Kasaragod district secretary M Rajagopalan (Thrikkaripur), P Nandakumar (Ponnani), K Babu (Nenmara), K D Prasenan (Alathur), Murali Perunelly (Manalur) and M Mukesh (Kollam).
The party is set to field fresh faces in 10 of the sitting CPM seats, including Koyilandi where MLA Kanathil Jameela passed away recently.
7 dropped over 2-term norm; most independent MLAs to contest again
Seven sitting MLAs were dropped in line with CPM’s two-term norm. While Govindan — being the state secretary — chose to stay away, Nandakumar was dropped due to political considerations. In Taliparamba, instead of Govindan, his wife and senior leader PK Shyamala will be the party’s candidate.
Shamseer is being replaced by senior leader Karayi Rajan, while V P P Mustafa will contest in Thrikkaripur, currently held by Rajagopalan. CPM secretariat member K K Jayachandran is being fielded in place of 79-year-old Mani, who completed two consecutive terms.
Nandakumar, whose candidature from Ponnani had led to major protests in 2021, has been dropped to accommodate M K Sakeer who stepped down as Waqf Board chief a day ago.
In Palakkad, Prasenan will be replaced by Palakkad district panchayat president T M Sasi, while former panchayat president K Preman will contest in place of Babu in Nenmara. Notably, former minister C Raveendranath, who was dropped in 2021, has been brought back to contest from Manaloor. In Kollam, the party will field district secretary in-charge S Jayamohan.
Of the 52 party MLAs who will be given another chance to contest, K K Shailaja and K N Unnikrishnan are all set to change constituencies. While Shailaja will move to Peravoor to take on Congress state president Sunny Joseph, Vypeen MLA Unnikrishnan will contest from Tripunithura. M B Shiny will be the CPM candidate in Vypeen.
Of the independent MLAs, Minister V Abdurahiman (Tanur), former minister K T Jaleel (Thavanoor), P T A Rahim (Kunnamangalam) and Sujith Vijayan Pillai (Chavara) are set to seek another term. Names of independents Kunnath Mohammmed (Mankada) and U Sharafali (Nilambur) have almost been confirmed.
